Technology’s purpose is to make life easier for all of us. Every digital invention was created with the sole purpose of helping us achieve our goals easily. The technology you have installed in your office or business serves as a force multiplier, allowing your employees to create amazing reports, spreadsheets, analyses, data and more.

Doesn’t it follow that your employees should be happy with whatever software and hardware they’re working on? If not, then there is something definitely wrong with your tech setup.

The last thing you want is an unhappy, inefficient employee. Make it your goal to help them do their job better – these 8 reasons for their tech dissatisfaction could lay the groundwork for a better future. After all, the sooner you know what’s wrong, the sooner you can help fix it.

1. Old Technology

If your employees are using out of date technology, they’re likely suffering. Apart from having to deal with bugs and crashes, you’re putting your clients at risk of having their private data stolen. Remember, hackers take advantage of unpatched and out of date software, so upgrade now for their sake and yours.

2. Untested Software

In the rush to update your tech setup, you might be tempted to buy or use software that hasn’t proven itself on the market. Don’t fall for the marketing hype that usually accompanies the launch of a new software solution. Opt for solutions that are commonly used and well-reviewed in your industry.

3. Insufficient Training

Training your staff is just as important as upgrading your technology – as a matter of fact, upgraded technology can’t be used if no one knows how to use it! Without training, you won’t boost productivity with your new installation, you’ll create a resentful workforce that will resist the move. Convince them that the new technology will help make them more effective and then teach them how to use it efficiently.

4. Complicated Processes

If your software solution has too many unnecessary bells and whistles, your staff will end up confused and frustrated. Your workers should be able to do their work in the least amount of steps. Cut out anything that’s unnecessary and streamline all new processes.

5. Ugly Interface

Microsoft Inc. realized early on that the way they could dominate the operating system world would be by creating a graphical user interface (GUI), an interface easy enough for even a child to operate. Today, the Windows series of OS (with the exception of Vista) is one of the most liked operating systems around. Give your workers software they can easily understand and use.

Remember that enterprise software solutions are usually ugly to look at. They were created with functionality in mind and not much thought is put into how good they look. In fact, many of them offer you skins and themes in subsequent versions or as upgrades. If your workers find it difficult to adapt to your new solution, it could be the look putting them off.

6. More Downtime

If your network and servers enjoy having more downtime than uptime, you’ll end up with a grumpy workforce. The very first complaint you’ll hear? The tech “upgrade” isn’t justified if it isn’t working. You need to guarantee uptime just like any data and web hosting provider would. If you can’t do it, then you should probably consider moving it all to the providers’ servers.

7. No Backup

Nothing will annoy your employees more than having to redo a job because you’ve lost their data. Apart from having a negative impact on your business’ productivity, asking your workers to input data or re-write reports they worked hard on will not win you any fans. Always have a tried-and-true backup plan. Again, here too, if you think you can’t do it, you can always opt for effective third-party data backup solutions.

8. Incompatibility

Aim for a technology solution that doesn’t require much human intervention. Your business processes should accept input at one end and spew out your final results at the other. If you happen to have different modules (Finance, HCM, Logistics, etc.), then your data should be able to travel freely without changes through every module. This way, you avoid delays and errors. You’ll also have a thankful workforce with one less task to perform.

Before you change anything, put yourself in your employees’ shoes. It would drive you insane to have to switch to a new, inefficient system with no training, only to find that it fails rudimentary processes all the time. Don’t make this a reality in your business – find the holes in your tech setup and work to fix them. It’ll pay off big in the long run!